A CREATIVE Grays youngster has been named runner-up in a national writing competition.

Amy Finch, 10, who attends Graham James Primary School, in The Sorrells, Stanford-le- Hope, took part in Explore Learning’s National Young Writers’ Award.

She wowed the judge with her story, Looks Can Be Deceiving.

The competition, in its sixth year, was judged by award-winning illustrator and author of the Tom Gates books, Liz Pichon.

This year’s task was a 500-word story with the theme “fairy tales and fables’.